


Hogwarts School Project

by musiclvr1112



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrinath August, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, M/M, School Project, adrinath august 2k18, au yeah august, ml au yeah august
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-23 01:21:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15595104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musiclvr1112/pseuds/musiclvr1112
Summary: Adrinath August Day 6:School Project/Pair-up|TouchAU Yeah August Day 6:Hogwarts AU





	Hogwarts School Project

 

 _Marvelous Portraiture…_ Adrien looked up from the scribbled note in his hand to see what looked like an old, run-down cottage. Or a cottage that was never nice in the first place. Even the bricks that put the edifice together looked as if they had been haphazardly stacked, with some sticking out at odd angles and several not matching the others in color or cut.

Usually he would have just passed by the strange cottage without sparing it so much as a second glance. He would even assume it abandoned. But the hand-carved wooden sign that hung crookedly from one loose peg over the door said otherwise.

 _Miraculous Portraiture,_ it read.

Scowling in confusion, he hoped this was indeed the shop he was looking for and stepped forward.

The old wooden door clearly never had any weather protection spells cast on it for it was warped and swollen from years of rain and snowfall, forcing him to press his weight into it to shove the thing open. It sprang loose from its frame, swinging open wide, and a dainty little bell jingled from above.

_Whoa._

Adrien gulped a nervous lump down in his throat as a million pairs of eyes suddenly fell on him. When only one person aside from him was in the room.

 _Yep,_ he thought. _This is definitely the shop._

The short, skinny frame of a redheaded boy who couldn’t be older than 16 or 17 turned, open and curious teal eyes tearing themselves from the easel in front of him to fall on the newest visitor.

“Um…Hi,” Adrien waved. His green eyes darted about the room, nervous and wary. The inside of the shop was about as disastrous as the outside, with way too many pieces of furniture, none of them matching, all covered in clutter to varying degrees. Cups of paint and dirty paint brushes were strewn about, and not a single surface in the room didn’t have stray marks or splatters on it.

But that wasn’t what discomforted the young wizard. What discomforted him were the walls lined with endless portraits, all staring at him with passive, bored eyes.

“Hi!” the boy greeted, way too cheery for the strange, morbid aura of the room. “Here to buy a portrait?”

“Um… No, I…” Adrien shook himself and tried to focus on the redhead as he spoke. “I’m here doing research for a class.”

“I see,” he replied, picking up a nearby hand towel and cleaning the paint off his fingers. “What are you researching?”

“I was hoping to interview the owner of the shop for my Business of Magic class.”

“Okay.”

Adrien stared at him for a second before continuing, “…Is he here?”

The redhead’s lips spread into a wide grin. “I am the owner.”

He blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I am the owner,” the redhead repeated.

“You’re Nathaniel Kurtzberg? Owner of Marvelous Portraiture?”

“Actually, it’s Miraculous Portraiture, but yes, that’s me.”

“But you’re— you’re so—,”

“I’m so what?”

“So young!”

He laughed then, his cheeks taking a healthy pink color that Adrien thought was a little too cute. “Yes, I am,” he affirmed.

“How old are you? You don’t look much older than me…”

“You’re a third year at Hogwarts, right?”

“Yes, how did you know that?”

He shrugged. “Lucky guess. This year I would have been a fourth year.”

 _Would have..?_ “What happened?”

“I dropped out part way through my first year. The structure of schooling just wasn’t that great for me. I wanted to focus on art.”

Adrien paused, staring at the boy’s bright, freeing teal eyes in thought. A life outside of schooling was…never something he had even considered. Having been raised by the rigid, powerful wizard that was his father, the only possible path he had ever had was Hogwarts. He couldn’t even imagine what would happen if he dropped out.

He felt the strangest sense of admiration for the boy standing before him. Admiration and the slightest touch of envy. A life without strict lessons and rigid expectations, free to pursue his passions…

“So you chose to paint…living portraits?”

The smile that the artist wore then was the kind that people only wore when discussing that which they truly loved in the world. He had seen the look on his best friend’s face as he spoke of his music, or his friend’s girlfriend’s face when she shared the latest gossip. It was a smile he didn’t know if he would ever experience for himself. A smile of passion.

“Yeah,” he said, admiring the works around the room. “The living pictures were the best part of Hogwarts. The first time I saw them I knew I wanted to learn to create them myself. Someday I hope to be talented enough to bring people to life as real as the ones in the school. Portraits who will stay up late into the night sharing stories and deep conversation with you.” Then he brought his attention back to the blonde, scratching the back of his head nervously. “That’s still a long way away though. Right now my portraits just follow you around the room with their eyes. A few have spoken, but never much more than a simple _‘hello.’”_

“How do you do it?”

Those teal eyes fell on him then with a sly smirk that suddenly had his stomach flipping. He looked to be thinking something over for a moment, before leaning in as if about to share some sort of secret. Adrien leaned in curiously. “Why don’t we discuss it over some butterbeer? My treat.”

“W-Wha— I-I— Um—,”

“You wanted to interview me, right? Let’s go.” And with that, the artist stepped past him and out the door.

 


End file.
